This invention relates to on-line database networking and more particularly to the application of an on-line database updating network to responsible materials selection.
Heightened public and private awareness of environmental and ecological concerns has created a need for specialized information management. Problems of a tangible nature, such as landfill shortages, and problems of a less comprehensible nature, such as ozone depletion, have brought waste reduction and recycling to the front page of many fields of design, engineering, planning, and legislation.
Professional practices in the fields of design, engineering, planning, and legislation require the specification of materials to be used during production and/or construction of an object or environment. Informed materials selection, if done properly, can greatly reduce the stress put on ecosystems and societies by specifying xe2x80x9csustainablexe2x80x9d materials and processes. Additionally, through the use of resources that enable responsible material selection at the outset of a project, the potential need for costly design changes later in the project lifecycle may be minimized.
The goal of providing environmentally responsible and sustainable materials and processes is a difficult one due to the diffused nature of the varied sources of information. Object and image creators require a designed, comprehensive research tool or reference resource to allow them to make inherently responsible and necessary choices quickly. Currently, time is the primary inhibitor of such research. Usually, by the time the appropriate information is located, the project is already done and xe2x80x9cout the doorxe2x80x9d. To provide the information necessary to the making of informed materials decisions, a resource is needed that will unify and organize the necessary information in one place.
In addition to the need for information management to facilitate research in the areas of ecologically responsible materials, materials processing, and materials recycling, there is also a need to make on-line communications and programs act in a more intuitive, less confusing, and less costly manner.
A general object of the invention is an on-line database updating network using object-oriented programming to support selective program updating by module blocks.
Another object of the invention is environmentally responsible materials selection through on-line networking of databases.
An additional object of the invention is a method of selectively updating subparts of user databases using object-oriented programming to build a program out of discrete xe2x80x9cblocksxe2x80x9d of code, where each block may be contained, accessed, modified or replaced by other blocks.
A further object of the invention is a desk reference educational guide to materials for architects, engineers, and industrial and graphics designers.
According to the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, an on-line database updating network and method is provided.
The communications network of the present invention comprises a communications channel, a user terminal, and a host terminal. The user terminal may include a user memory, user-input means, user display, a user processor, and a user-connecting means. The input means and the connecting means may be embodied as a keyboard and a user data port, respectively.
The user data port is connected to the communications channel. The user processor is connected to the user data port. The user memory and the keyboard are connected to the user processor. The user display is connected to the keyboard and to the user processor.
The user data port interfaces between the user terminal and the communications channel. The user memory stores a plurality of user modules in a modules folder; each user module includes a plurality of user module blocks of information. The keyboard inputs user identification data and other data to the user professor and/or the user memory. The user display displays messages and screens to the user. The user processor processes user input data, locates the data port, and accesses the communications channel.
The host terminal includes host-communications means, host-connecting means such as a host data port, a host memory, and a host processor.
The host data port is connected to the communications channel. The host processor is connected to the host data port. The host memory is connected to the host processor.
The host data port interfaces between the host terminal and the communications channel. The host processor receives user information data and other data sent from the user terminal to the host terminal using the communications channel. The host processor also sends host data from the host terminal to the user terminal using the communications channel. The host memory stores a plurality of host modules; each host module includes a plurality of host module blocks of information.
In use of a representative embodiment of the present invention, a user inputs user identification data into the user terminal using the keyboard. In response to the user identification data, the user processor scans the user memory for user modules in the user modules folder. In response to locating a user module having a user origin date, the user processor scans the user data port for a host terminal. In response to finding a host terminal, the user processor accesses the communications channel to connect with the host terminal. The user terminal sends user identification data and data on the user module to the host terminal.
The host terminal, operatively coupled to the user terminal through the communications channel, receives the user identification data from the user terminal. In response to the user identification and user module data, the host processor sends, over the communications channel, a host origin date for a host module corresponding to the user module. Responsive to receiving the host origin date for the host module, the user processor compares the host origin date for the host module to the user origin date for the corresponding user module. In response to determining that the host origin date is more recent than the user origin date, the user processor identifies those host module blocks of information, within the host module, having origin dates more recent than corresponding user module blocks of information, within the user module, as updated blocks. The user processor then downloads to the user memory the updated blocks, and replaces the older user module blocks of information with the downloaded updated blocks.
The present invention also may be embodied as a method for updating databases using a network including a user terminal, a host terminal, and a communications channel.
The user terminal includes a display, a data port, and a user terminal memory for storing user modules comprising user module blocks of information in a modules folder. The host terminal includes a host terminal memory for storing host modules comprising host module blocks of information.
The method of the present invention comprises the steps of activating the user terminal, scanning the modules folder in the user terminal memory for stored user modules, and locating a stored user module having a user origin date. The method further comprises the steps of locating a host terminal, scanning the host terminal memory for stored host modules, and locating a stored host module corresponding to the stored user module and having a host origin date. The method then comprises the steps of retrieving from the user terminal memory the user origin date, and comparing by the user terminal the user origin date and the host origin date. In response to the host origin date being more recent than the user origin date, the user terminal identifies those host module blocks of information having origin dates more recent than corresponding user module blocks of information as updated blocks, and downloads the updated blocks into the user terminal memory. The stored user module is then updated with the downloaded updated blocks and the host origin date.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention are set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part are obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention also may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.